Life is Short But Sweet for Certain
by DangerousDave
Summary: This is a standard post-detention story. My first attempt, so any feedback would be very much appreciated. Enjoy
1. Chapter 1

Brian woke up on Sunday morning to his little sister's incessant knocking. "Briian! Mom says it's time for Church! Get Up!" she said impishly. "I'm up!" Brian said before he rolled over and went back to sleep.

He hadn't slept well the night before, after the day he had. Almost as soon as he got home, the doubts started in on him, and they didn't let up when he tried to go to bed. At first he thought he had found four new friends, regardless of what Claire said. And then he thought to himself, would he even want to be friends with them? He thought Claire was stuck-up, he didn't know what his friends, including Larry Lester would say if he was friends with Andy. He was downright afraid of the kind of trouble that would ensue if he decided to spend time with bender, and Allison, well she stole his wallet.

Brian woke up to his Mother looking down at him, she was in her Church clothes and beamed down at him with such disdain that he would rather of gone toe-to-toe with Darth Vader than to hear what she was about to say. "You just lovve making everyone wait for you, don't you? Well we didn't wait for you, not this time. You missed church."

She made this sound like it was one of the most offensive things anyone ever committed by a human. Brian absentmindedly rolled over to take out his retainer, his mom took this as a sign of disrespect. "You can go ahead and add two days to your punishment from yesterday's ordeal. Oh, and you can grace the 6 o'clock service tomorrow morning to make up for missing church."

Eat my shorts. This is what Brian would love to of said. But instead, he just lay there motionlessly, as his mother walked out of his room with her hands on her hips. Scolding well done, Mrs. Johnson.

Brian thought of John Bender in his situation. He doubted John ever got hassled for missing church. They are probably not the church-going type of family. Claire and Andy probably went to Church every Sunday. He imagined Claire's mom staying behind to chat and gossip with all the other wealthy, Shermer moms in their identically posh Sunday best. Allison more likely than not had her own religion, he thought.

He got out of bed, and went over to his dresser and began to change into his day clothes. He looked over at the pile of clothes he had worn yesterday to detention. Putting them back on won't bring back the feeling he had walking out of Shermer High School the previous day. He started his homework at one in the afternoon, and ended it at eight at night. He got about four hours of sleep Sunday night.

Andy woke up at around noon, he was sore from yesterday's workout, he could not fall asleep. As soon as he was picked up he went for a long run with his father, of course his father pushed him, and pushed him until he had to give up. He mentally blamed it on smoking grass earlier that day. Fucking Bender, he thought to himself, that's the last time he would get stoned. His knee burned deep and it hurt even to sit up.

After his workout he and his parents sat down to talk about colleges. The deadline was approaching for his admission process. He had two schools to pick between, Minnesota, and Iowa. Two Big Ten schools, both with good wrestling programs, both offering him sizeable scholarships to get him through school.

He had never been to either school; he had never been to either state, although he had a strange dream that he became a coach for a boy's hockey team in Minnesota. He remembered something about geese, who knows, he was a wrestler. And he was going to be a wrestler in college. It was that or good old Oakland Community College, working and attending class from home. He would have preferred to go to a nice small college in a city, but that just wasn't in the cards.

He thought about the kind of schools his new 'friends' would go to. Brian to an ivy-league school or something like that. Claire to some private school where she could join a sorority and spend her days with her polo-clad boyfriend. Bender, well Bender was probably going nowhere. It is a shame because as much as Andy hated to admit it, he knew Bender had the mind, and the body to get him into and through college. But instead of having a father who pushed him too far he had a father who pushed him too far back. Allison however, she could go places, she was artsy, intelligent, and really cute. Well he didn't think being cute would get her into college, but she was a junior and didn't need to be thinking about these things.

"Andrew! Your father needs help out back! Come down and I'll fix you some breakfast after you finish up!" Andrew's mom yelled. Andrew was snapped out of his thought, and he got up, pulled a sweatshirt and jeans that would keep him warm and he headed out to help his father with some yard-work.

Andy spent the rest of the day watching TV and relaxing his knee for the hard week of practice that would follow.

Claire sat down on the sofa in her room after just returning from Church. She decided against going shopping at the mall with her mom. She looked over at the stack of homework she had to do for Monday. She thought of the assignments she had to do for tomorrow, and then she thought of something else that was due tomorrow.

She didn't know why she gave away her earring, and she didn't know why she snuck into a janitors closet for that asshole. Then she thought, wait, he was _locked_ in a janitor's closet. He was actually locked in that janitor's closet. What if there had been a fire? Then she thought of him saying "I think violating fire code, and endangering the lives of students would be unwise at this junction in your career, sir." Claire laughed at that how he seemed to be so uneducated and barbaric, yet he had such a puckish eloquence, what a smartass.

She wondered what he was doing, well she knew very well that he wouldn't be awake at 1 o'clock on a Sunday. She then wondered what her fellow detentioneers were up to on the cold March Sunday. Andy was working out, Allison was in a corner looking at a wall, Brian was studying, or watching Star Trek. She already established that John Bender was asleep right now, but she wondered whether it was in his own bed, the bed of a girl he 'considered', or he was waking up in the Shermer police department's holding cell. Either way, she decided not to care.

Claire's phone rang, and she picked it up. "Hey Claire, what's happening?" her friend Jules asked. "Nothing just sitting in my room, procrastinating on some homework," Claire replied. "How was detention yesterday?" "It was boring, Vernon's a huge jerk, but Andy Clark was there, and a few other kids you don't know." "That sounds lame, so why didn't you come out last night?" "I don't know, didn't feel like giving my parents something to argue over," "That depressing, well give me a call later, I might go to the mall a little later if you want to come?" "Thanks, maybe, I'll call you later."

The truth is, she ended up enjoying detention more than she would ever have anticipated. She thought again about those four 'friends,' she still had no idea what would become of this. Before going downstairs to make some tea she thought about John Bender and prayed he hadn't pawned off her earring for drugs. Even if she did partake in the highly questionable act.

She spent the rest of the day chatting with her girlfriends, catching up in a few of her classes and had dinner with her family at the country club.

Allison looked up from the little nest she made herself in her bed; she did not sleep last night. Instead, she pulled an all nighter finishing a particularly challenging piece of art. She was sitting crosse-legged crouching down over her new work. She had obsessed over it, she worked as hard as she could to perfect it.

Her water colors were all over her bed, her hands were filthy and the only thing she used to clean up were a few paper towels before she resorted to using her bed sheets. She looked down at her work; it was a colorful piece (black, white, and gray) In her mind, at least. In the center of the piece were five gray trees surrounded by a whole forest of black trees. She looked at the unused colored supplies, and she eyed a container of green, she was going to have to wait for her artistic inspiration before she could use it.

She thought of the people who were going to ignore her tomorrow. She thought about day before when she walked out of Shermer High School thinking she had a boyfriend, and a few new friends. Well she mostly thought of her new boyfriend, then she realized that she probably not going to have a boyfriend on Monday. She thought about calling him, just to clear up any confusion that might end up hurting her.

She rummaged through her drawers in hopes of finding the school phone book, but could not find it. She knew she had it, but had never used it, perhaps she threw it out. This is unlikely, she didn't throw anything away, her room was littered with odd items, happy meal toys, garbage, old paintings, paper, pens, clothes, an Atari videogame set she stole.

She doesn't have a television of her own, and her parents were not the type to share it with her. She entertained the idea of giving it to Brian, he could always use something nerdy like this, Bender would break it, and she didn't want all her hard work to go to waste. Andy might like it, but she would never know how to give it to him. Claire, Allison laughed at the thought of Claire having fun with a video game.

Allison spent the rest of her day in her room, except for one trip to the kitchen to get a piece of lettuce, two trips to the bathroom, and one trip to the living room to retrieve her TV-dinner. It is unknown what she did with the piece of lettuce.

John woke up in his friend Spencer's basement. He was both on the couch, and off the couch. His jacket had apparently been stolen by one of the other inhabitants of this basement and used as a blanket. He spotted the thief and retrieved it accordingly (he kicked them person until they let go). He sat down on the couch and took a look around, mtv was running in the back of the basement on a beat up box.

It hadn't been a great night, he didn't returned home after detention, he went straight to his buddy's house and hung out. He was out of weed due to the events in detention. He didn't mind, it was well worth it to get a nerd, and two preps stoned. He didn't know if Allison got high or not, she was always high in some way or another he bet. He and his friends hung around they're basement kicking it to tunes passing around an 'expertly liberated' bottle of whiskey.

He felt his new 'accessory' on his left ear. He was crazy to believe that she actually gave it to him, and he hadn't thought about yesterday's happenings yet. He didn't want to think about it. He thought about all of them, where they were, what they were doing. Andy working out to his slave-driving father's whips. Bender wondered if his father actually had whips to drive his son onto the state wrestling championship. That would certainly something that he would sympathize about. But John hated thinking about stuff like that. Brian was studying, he knew this. Allison was, well he would absolutely love to know what kind of stuff that girl gets into. Claire was in her castle, thinking about shoes, she already forgot about him he bet.

"Dude, what happened to Jack and Christian? I thought they were supposed to crash here," John's groggy friend Spencer who appeared to have just woken up asked him. "Those fags were either a.) at home getting a bedtime story from their mom, or b.) professing their undying love to each other, and making out," John replied, John's two friends Jack and Christian were inseparable, not dissimilar from Spencer and John's other friend Brent. John was kind of odd-man-out in that group of kids. They had some sort of a crew, they all got high together, they all backed each other up, and they all loved to sit around and do what 'burners do': make fun of people who think that their life revolved around Shermer High School.

John left Spencer's house for the long, cold, trek back to his house. He was 'welcomed' by his father at the door, he was ignored by his father at the door. John sat around all day watching a few old movies on his beat up television set, he read some old comics, and listened to music before tracking down some dinner and shutting himself in his room to enjoy some 'quiet time'.


	2. Monday

John arrived at Shermer High School at 8:30, about halfway through his gym class. Blowing it off he decided to go to the student center and try and find one or two of his friends. Walking in to the irritatingly cheery looking room filled with tables and couches for students to sit at and spend what little free time Shermer High School's challenging curriculum spared them, he spotted his two friends Jack and Spencer.

Spencer and Jack were bartering cigarettes for a completed math assignment. "There is NO way that half a pack of cigarettes I nicked earlier is worth a crummy algebra assignment, its probably all wrong anyhow," "Its better than failing, you retard," they bickered. John interrupted, "You two nancies actually care about that class, what a fucking joke," "Well just because we don't like spending every Saturday in the library like you do, doesn't mean you have to give us any grief for exercising our academic selves," Jack retorted, as if he were truly proud of this scholarly activity of trading academic material for tobacco.

"Whatever dildo, you guys doing anything not gay? Or do I have to go find something that doesn't exercise my academic nuts?" And with that John left the student center, hearing his friends jeer him "jog off then Bender, FAAAG." He and his friends had got to find some new insults. He knew the real reason he went of the student center, and it was not to patronize Spencer for his C of a math assignment. John began roaming the halls, perhaps he could steal someone's lunch early so he won't have to wait to eat.

"Well hey there Allison! And why might you be out of class on this lovely Shermer High Monday morning?" Allison heard as her quiet walk down the halls was interrupted rather rudely by none other than John Bender. John put his arm around her playfully and was "Soo, any news form the wrestling matt?" He inquired. "No," she replied, softly. "Well I'll be damned sporto and princess don't want anything to do with freaks like us." Allison was a bit annoyed to see John. "I'm not like you." She said quietly walking, in no particular direction, but trying to act as if John was following her.

"Don't be so hard on yourself," John replied, he sure was full of himself today. "Have you seen Claire yet?" Allison asked, feeling bad, but hoping that those two weren't together. She would hate if her and Andy didn't work out and then see Claire and Bender all mushy and happy together.

"No I have yet to visit the country club," John replied, trying desperately to make it seem as if he didn't care. As they continued to walk, Allison noticed this and she hoped that everything worked out. She was nervous about seeing Andy, she had played it over and over in her head how it would happen. She would come to school dressed 'all Claired up' trying to impress him or something, and she would walk up to him, and they would stare at each other for a minute, and he would walk away. This scene went through her head probably twenty times that morning. She decided she was not going to approach him, he would come to her. She did not dress up, in fact, she probably dressed down by her standards (abysmal standards in Claire's opinion.)

As they were walking she noticed something shiny, He was about to say something annoying again when she asked, "Did you steal that earring from Claire, John?" John hadn't expected something that like this. "What did you say?" John asked his eyes wild with anger. "You shouldn-" "WHAT DID YOU SAY?" John cut her off. Allison regretted asking him, it was clearly a touchy subject, she only said it because he had annoyed her about Andy.

"John did not steal my earring, Allison. I gave it to him," Claire said. Neither of them had noticed that class just got out and Claire was standing right behind them with her hands on her hips looking like a menacing pink nazi storm trooper.

The nerve of Allison, Claire thought as she stared at her. Allison clearly felt that she had made the wrong move, she was not good with people, and Claire knew this.

"I'm sorry John," Allison muttered, looking at the ground and then up to Claire. Claire tried not to look angry with Allison, but before Claire or John could say something Allison walked away with embarrassing haste. "Hey Claire, if you want the earring back, that's fine." John said almost defeatedly. Claire found this almost laughable, John Bender going down almost as easy as he did when Andy put him on the floor that Saturday.

"What, you're not going to call me 'princess', John?" She asked half annoyed and half friendly. "Well if you wish, Repunzel." John replied. "I get it if you were just standing up for me back there, you can run on if you like," John told her. "Is that what you think I was going to do?" Claire asked. "I would assume so, but surprise me Cherry," "Haha I don't think so if that's how you're going to be," Claire laughed. "So what do we do? Should I walk to my class, and you walk to your,- wait, do you even go to class?" Claire asked. "Yes, I go to class, just not yet today."

Claire laughed, she was enjoying this decreasingly hostile conversation, somehow. "Should we do this, John?" She asked, it was totally unlike her to be so straightforward about something like this. Luckily there was practically no one around. "Hey, have you ever been to a hockey game, princess?" John asked her. "Yeah, a few. My Dad gets us box seats to those, and the basketball ones, and sometimes those ice shows." Claire replied. "Well I'd hate to disappoint you with peasant seating, so I just won't ask," "Are you asking me to go on a date with you, John?" Claire interrupted his drabble. "I'm inviting you, to go to a hockey game, and if you want to there's one tomorrow I have tickets to it cause of my old man's work," John said, almost uninvitingly, Claire knew this was as friendly as it would get.

"Oh does your dad do management or something for them?" Claire asked interestingly, she was used to her friends being able to supply luxuries like tickets due to well-connected fathers and whatnot. "He drives the zamboni, Princess," John answered, it was apparent he had been spited, but he decided not to hold it against her. Claire couldn't help but let a small smirk out and giggle, he saw this and almost as quickly as he tried to turn around she exclaimed

"I don't know what a zamboni is, but yes I would love to go to a game with you." John turned to her, looking at her with a smile that told Claire that this was going to be an interesting date. "Well alright, I'll see you around. Oh yeah, if I hear you don't talk to super dweeb today, you're uninvited."

And with that John walked away from Claire, she was smiling. It was so like John to leave on such a scathingly annoying note. She began walking to her next class, she saw Andy waiting to get out of the door of his classroom, but she didn't stop to say hi. She already knew Andy, and she was also a bit annoyed with the unfair comment form Allison earlier, so she walked on.

Andy was just getting out of his first period class when he began to look. Where is she? he thought to himself. He had waited all Sunday for this, he wanted to see her. He was really nervous. He didn't have a game plan, if there was one thing about Andrew Clark, it was that he always had a game plan. This time, his coach and his father were not going to help him out. He liked this idea, it was him. "Her can't think for himself," was all he heard in the back of his head. How right she had been, now it was time to prove her wrong.

"What's up Clark? My ass cheeks kill, you are such a jerk dude," Andy hear from behind him as on of his friends Mike ran up to him patting him on the back. Andrew didn't respond, this was definitely not what he wanted to think about. "How was the punishment on Saturday? Hey my old man told me that your dad said you were going to commit to Iowa." Mike said, more unwelcomed topics of conversation. "Yeah, it's either that or Minnesota, I don't know." "Big Ten brother, that'll be sweet, I'm thinking about ISU," 'I'm sure that will be really academically challenging for you Mike,' Andy thought to himself. ISU stood for both Illinois State University, and more colloquially 'I screwed up.' "That should be cool, I heard Nick Schwartz and that one kid on the basketball team are going there." Andy replied, not caring much.

Before Andy could think, he passed Brian in the hallway. Realizing this "Hey Mike I'll talk to you later. Hey Brian! Wait Up!" Brian clearly had not expected this by his surprised look as Andy patted him on the back. "Hey Andy, hows it going?" Brian said, he didn't sound cheerful at all.

"What's the matter pal? Something wrong?" Andy asked. "Nah I'm kind of surprised you're talking to me." Brian said, as he looked around to see if people were staring or something, they weren't. Andy thought that people would make a big deal about this, but he also hadn't counted on Andy talking to him. "Don't be dude, you have 5th period lunch?" Andy replied. "No I got 6th why?" Brian Answered. "Because I thought you'd come eat with me later." Andy thought to himself 'Well Brian, this is a very nutritious lunch, all the food groups are represented.' Andy laughed to himself, regretting that he couldn't spend some time with Brian, but he just said "Hey Bri, I gotta head out, I'll talk to you later?" "Yeah, of course, I'll see ya Andy" Andy heard Brian say as he sped away to his Algebra class. He wondered how the rest of the day would go and prayed to god that he would see Allison soon, yet at the same time a nervousness he had never felt began to take hold.

Brian walked into his honors physics class feeling a little better from his otherwise gloomy mood. Andy had actually talked to him. Aside from Claire, he thought Andy would be the one to ignore him the most. Bender might talk to him cause he didn't care what the preps and athletes cared about. And Allison could either go on having no friends, or talk him. Brian didn't care as long as she didn't pilfer any of his belongings.

Brian was thankful for his demanding Physics course-load, he hated thinking about his situation with friends. His conversation with Andy had given him a little bit of confidence, however he was still sure that Claire and the rest would ignore him as predicted.

He wanted nothing more than to walk out of his physics class. For one of the first times in his life he wanted to walk out in front of his teachers, in front of his grades, in front of his parents. He then thought of how Andy and him were very similar, they were being pushed constantly. Both of them no longer enjoyed their passions because of pressure. He wished he could just walk away, or at least have the nerve to sleep through a class like Bender. For someone being in the Physics club, he didn't feel much like discussing physics, or the property of physics, despite it actually being a social situation.


	3. Lunch

Brian walked out of his fifth period Honors Latin 2 class. This had easily been the worst day of classes in his entire life. Every single minute dragged on for what seemed to be hours. He had trouble concentrating, he almost failed his history quiz, his mind was on his social life for the first time in all of high school. He could now look forward to a quiet lunch period at the nerd's table discussing Star Wars, Star Trek, StarGate, etc.

He had seen only two of his new friends the entire day and conversed briefly with only one. He had an almost comforting talk with Andy, and he also saw Allison briefly in the hall the period before, they had not interacted. He was just walking into lunch when he saw his next one: Claire. She was leaving the cafeteria in a hurry; she was looking distressed, as if something traumatic had happened to her. She ran passed him without noticing him, must have been something important. Broke a nail perhaps? Brian thought as he went into the cafeteria, but didn't give it much mind figuring he'd find out sooner or later.

He entered the cafeteria to a commotion he wasn't expecting. He saw several teachers and several students standing in the middle of the large room arguing. He didn't want to get close, but he wanted to know what was going on. Brian walked over to a nearby table where he saw a few of his friends and sat down facing the group. "Hey Bri-guy, have you caught any of this?" His friend Thomas asked him as the rest of the table greeted him. "No what happened?" Brian responded but his question was quickly answered as he spotted his two friends and the unlikely pair of Andy and Bender.

Bender seemed to be arguing with two school administrators while Andy was talking to Mr. Vernon. Brian thanked god that Bender wasn't arguing with Vernon, he knew very well what that was like. Brian also spotted several jocks amongst the crowd, all talking to teachers and the school security guard.

"What happened?" Brian asked to no one in particular, as he stared, he wanted answers. "Well I guess that punk looking kid was talking to that wrestler or something, what's his name? Clark, perhaps. Well they were standing there when some other guys, big guys, jocks walked up and they all started arguing. The punk got punched, and they all started going at it. It was two on maybe four, I'm not sure, it didn't look like the punk and Clark were fighting, fists were flying everywhere, WWF style. It got broken up pretty quickly, it was going to get major though." Brian could not believe it, actually, he could believe it, types like Bender and Andy have so much testosterone built up they would punch a sandwich if it didn't taste good. But still, them fighting on the same side?

The small mob of people was beginning to disperse, and Brian looked to see what was happening. He remembered Claire, and wondered if this had anything to do with the fight. He saw Andy, Bender, and another one of those jocks being led to out of the cafeteria with Vernon and a small throng of teachers. Brian decided it was out of his hands and that he would probably find out later. So he bit into his peanut-butter and jelly with the crusts cut off and tried not to think about it.

Andy walked out of the cafeteria followed by a surprising group of people; Bender was at his rear, Vernon following closely behind as if she were chasing them, and he was followed by a few other teachers acting as though they were on a mission. It had been an unexpectedly eventful lunch period so far Andy thought. It had actually been a very short lunch period.

Andy recalled it like this: he walked into the caf and walked over to a bickering Bender and Claire. They were arguing about long hair or something. Claire was right, Bender's hair made him look like a fag. Bender got defensive and asked something about curtains and drapes being the same color. Claire slapped him on the arm and Andy told him to clean up his act, but it was no big deal. Just when they were about to move on and get some food (Andy had four sandwiches, a bag of potato chips, an assortment of fruit, and a can of juice, and he was hungry) disaster struck.

"Something wrong here Claire, Andy?" Mitch Edson, a football player, was standing between Claire and Bender like he was protecting Claire. "Something wrong with you, or something?" Bender replied with a mock gorilla voice and smirk, he lived for shit like this, Andy could tell. "Thanks Mitch, but we're fine here," Andy said, trying to keep things cool despite his nervousness.

"Claire, you okay?" Mitch asked, shooting look from her to Bender. Claire was silent; she looked scared though, embarrassed maybe, Andy wished she wouldn't look like that. John seemed to have noticed this and looked at her with disgust. "I love how this is how its gonna happen, you know, you can play in the dirt so long as you keep your hands clean huh, Cherrie?" Bender asked incredulously. "John, stop," But Claire was cut off by Mitch "Get out of here scuzzball, she doesn't need you being an ass to her, " Mitch said as he pushed Bender. Bender Pushed back, and Mitch punched him.

The next thing that happened, as Andy recalled himself doing it, were two hits. Him hitting Mitch and Mitch hitting the floor. What Andy hadn't noticed was a few of his, Claire's, and Mitch's friends behind them. "What the fuck is wrong with you Clark?" said one of them as he pushed Andy back. The last thing Andy wanted was trouble, he cursed himself for punching Mitch but he had to. "Fucking dickweed! New friend or something?" one of Andy's friends Chris yelled at him. As Chris approached him Andy looked afraid of someone for the first time. Chris quickly approached him; Andy was not ready for this. Chris was starting to wind up when he saw it.

For a burner who had never played a sport in his life, Bender laid him out harder than he had ever seen in a cafeteria. Chris was down, and the scuffle began. After no more than a minute of fists and feet flying every which way, mostly at Bender, the fight was broken up. There were teachers everywhere and they were looking for explanations. Vernon started up with Bender but Andy interceded, and after what seemed to be a while, he was walking down the hall to the Dean's office. He was sat down in Vernon's office next to Bender, Claire was nowhere to be found, and the first thing he heard was "Mr. Clark, got a meet this Saturday?"

Allison walked the halls every lunch period. She had been doing this all of high school. She figured this was a lot easier than trying to find someone to sit with in the cafeteria. Every now and again she sat with some of the artsier new-wave kids by the elevator and talked. She wouldn't consider these kids her friends exactly, but they all seemed to accept her. But today she decided just to roam the halls to pass the time.

Allison was just passing the Dean's office when she ran into them. Bender and Andy stormed out of the office looking absolutely livid. Bender walked on, apparently not noticing her, but Andy stopped. "Hey," Andy said quietly, as if he'd been beaten down. "Hey," She responded even quieter.

It was funny; she had tried to outdo him in how quietly they greeted each other. She thought about how stupid that was and for one of the first times in her life, she took the initiative. "Are you okay?" She asked as she saw him trying to calm down. "No," Andy responded. "Well, would you like to walk with me?" She asked him, he nodded and they silently walked down the hall together.

They walked with no particular place in mind. They walked around the library, they both stopped and looked at each other and smiled. Allison thought about what a transformation she saw in Andy. At first he looked like a wild beast ready to hit anything, but only after a few minutes of silence he was as peaceful as anyone. "Do you want to talk about it?" Allison asked him. "I thought you didn't want to talk about things," He responded. "Well now I do," Allison said with a small smile.

And so Andy told her the entire story, everything from talking with Claire and Bender, up until the fight, and then about his talk with Vernon. She sat there quietly, she liked listening to people, it was talking she wasn't comfortable with. She could tell he was very comfortable talking to her, this made her really happy deep down. She was shocked by the story and how fast things could escalate. She hoped to god that something like this would never happened to them.

"I'm so sorry about your meet Andy," Allison said as sympathetically as possible. "Did you get detention?" "No, Vernon knew this was punishment enough. Personally I'd rather have detention so I wouldn't have to deal with my old man for 9 hours." Andy answered glumly.

"Well at least you stood up for Bender, that's important," Allison said trying to sound encouraging. "I'm happy you did that," she added. "I know, it still sucks. I was the only one standing up for him too." Andy explained. "Claire didn't say a thing, I don't know how much he liked that." Allison could tell by Andy's explanation that everything was not peachy with those two. "Well I'm sure they'll be fine," Allison added as she took Andy's hand. "Do you want to come to an art show with me on Saturday afternoon?" Allison asked, without a lot of confidence. "I've never been, I'm not too into art," Andy replied. "Okay," Allison said trying not to sound disappointed. "I never said I wouldn't go, we'll see." Andy said and they smiled. After that they sat down in the hallway in almost complete silence for the rest of the lunch period.

Today was not a good day, Claire thought as she sat in the stall of the girl's bathroom in Shermer High School. She was miserable, luckily she didn't cry until she reached the bathroom. None of her girlfriends had bothered to come after her. Maybe they were afraid because of the event between the guys, or maybe they were so perturbed by her talking to John Bender that they assumed she wasn't friends with them. Her friends weren't as bad as she made them out to be, but they sure weren't coming through for her today.

She had actually been looking forward to lunch today. She was excited to see John, especially after she had been asked out on a date to the hockey game. She was talking with John at the cafeteria about hockey; she had no idea that he played a sport ever in his life. They were laughing and being friendly and she told him he'd look better with short hair. It got a little hostile when Andy got there and after John's disgusting comment, but everything was fine, at least until their little incident happened.

She decided it was time to figure out her life; her makeup was smeared, she had no clue where her books were, and she hadn't eaten yet. Claire cleaned herself up, remembered she left her books in her locker, and she left the bathroom feeling a little bit better. She wanted so badly to talk to John but she was so afraid of what would happen. She felt bad about how she froze up in the cafeteria, but he had no clue where she was coming from. John was not very understanding about what it was like to be Claire, and vice versa. This did not make her feel better about their chances.

She wondered whether one single day made them a couple or not. It did not make any sense; she had no idea what he thought either. He never said anything about them going together, but she did know that it seemed to be going well until the rest of Shermer High got involved. She would just have to apologize, explain herself, and try to move on, with or without him. Maybe it was just easier if they didn't, but maybe it would be better if they did this together. She thought that this might not only be good for them, but it could also help Andy, Allison, and Brian. Maybe Brian would be someone good to talk to about this, if she saw Brian, she would have to confide in him.

Claire was walking down the hall when she saw him. Oh great, she thought, she wasn't quite ready for this at that moment, especially without a pre-drama pep talk with her girls. He was at his locker and kicking it, or the locker next to his. He probably wasn't aiming, just kicking blindly. "Who the fuck stole my fucking lock, all my shits been fucking nicked!" He yelled to her as she walked towards him. She was surprised that he noticed her without anything to her.

"I have an extra lock," she quietly, nervously. "If you want it," Claire quickly added. "Yeah, you're gonna do that for someone you don't want to talk to when it counts?" John said to her inquisitively. "Well I lost mine last year, and after I bought a new one, I found my old one in my purse," she explained. "Daddy buy it for you? Did you guys go to the mall, get lunch, and find the best damn lock for daddy's girl?" John asked mockingly. "Okay, if you don't want it, I could always just go to my own locker." Claire was sorry for what she did, but she didn't deserve treatment like this. "Well I wouldn't want to upset Chris." John retorted.

So princess wants to make up, John thought to himself as Claire looked up at him. She looked upset, like she had been slighted. "I'm sorry John, I just, I just like, I froze and like, everything happened quickly and I wasn't thinking," Claire babbled sounding increasingly distressed. "Well if you aren't ready to talk to me in public, then we can just walk our separate ways," John said. "John I want to- but," "BUT WHAT?!" John interrupted, he was sick of her shit.

"John, I want to, I do, I'm sorry!" Claire exclaimed desperately. "Here's your earring, you miss it? Lucky I didn't pawn it off. You know that would have happened if my dad saw this?" John went on angrily. "John, stop doing this, stop!" "Fuck this locker, I don't care about this shit, and fuck you, I'm out of here," John shouted as he slammed his locker shut and marched down the hall. John didn't have the time or patience to give her back her earring, she probably had four more pairs, John thought.

"Where are you going, John?" John heard Claire ask as he walked away from her. "Well you can't expect me to spend the rest of the in this dump with the likes of princess Claire when she's all upset!" "I'm coming with you! But let me get my coat!" Claire yelled back as she followed him. John stopped, turned around, and almost smiled, but he couldn't let her get to him. "You are not coming with me." "Yes I am," "You wouldn't want detention with me this weekend would you," "I DON'T CARE ABOUT THAT!" Claire finally yelled, tired of this argument.

"I don't care, at least I'll be able to spend Saturday with you maybe," Claire said sounding a little bit unsure of herself. "Where's your locker?" John asked clearly annoyed. "This way," Claire dictated. They walked quietly, John had lost, Claire had won. John was angry, he hated losing arguments, especially to someone like Claire. They reached her locker, and she started going through it without saying anything while John stood there against the locker next to hers impatiently. John looked through her locker, "Maids definitely not on vacation," John said eyeing it. Her locker was utterly perfect, perfect in the worst way possible; it was organized, clean, and pink. John looked at it as though it would he would turn into Andrew Clark if he stared at it too long, so he looked down at his boots instead, they were getting old.

"Here's my extra lock," Claire said to a surprised John, he reluctantly took it. "Thanks," he said trying not to sound too grateful. "Claire what are you doing?" John heard an unfamiliarly annoying voice behind him. "Claire, where are you going?" another voice asked as they turned to see two of Claire's fellow pretty pretty princesses. "Jackie, I'm just going out for a bit, I'll talk to you later," Claire said hastily as she turned and started to walk away. "Claire, what are you doing with him?" princess number two asked. "It's none of your business, but if you must know, I'm going home," Claire responded turning around. "With himm?" They said in unison. "Yes, and I don't really care what you have to say about this, sorry, but I don't." Claire said loudly and with purpose.

John was loving every minute of this. "Claire, what the fuck is going on with you?" One of them said, but it didn't matter, him and Claire were already on their way out. "Wonder how many detentions you're gonna to get, Cherry? You think you're up for this?" John asked her amusedly. "Well this months good, but after that I'm gonna have to check my calender," Claire said with a laugh. They walked out of Shermer High school to Claire's car and took off. This was the most expensive car John had ever been in, but it wasn't the car that mattered but who was in it. They drove off without any destination in particular. Hopefully Claire didn't try to make this a crummy date.

Shermer High School changed to seventh period after what was not only the longest lunch period in Shermer's history, but also the longest lunch period in the history of all fanfiction.


	4. Weeknights

At around 5:30 PM John walked into his small, empty house after what seemed to be a pretty delightful day. Not only did he get to punch a few jocks, he also got to skip class, both pastimes of his, but he also saw Claire Standish tell her friends off, a true spectacle. John put his jacket down on the sofa and walked into his kitchen. The kitchen, like the rest of his house was both small, and filthy. There were dishes piled up in the sink, it was a rare occasion when the Benders got around to doing dishes, the tiles for the floor, not only looked cheap, were also filthy. Assorted items that belonged anywhere but in a kitchen peppered the room, a multiplicity of different tools, books (unread), clothes, and so on could be found everywhere from the table to the shelves.

John heard the telephone ring, he debated on whether or not to pick it up, it was probably for his parents, and it was definitely nothing good. John decided to be productive today so he picked up the phone. "Yeah?" John said uncouthly. "Mr. Bender, this is Veronica Lipinski form Shermer High School, I was wondering if you were aware your son John was not present for his seventh, eighth, or ninth period classes today, or his first period class for that matter?" The woman said in a matter-of-factly voice that made John cringe. He had to think fast, so he put on the grumpiest, most John Bender Sr-ish voice he could muster and said, "Umm, yes Johnny wasn't feeling well so he called my wife at work, and she uh had him go home." This was not one of the best lies he's ever told. "Might I remind you, Mr. Bender, that your son does not have what we would like to call an 'exemplary attendance record' here at Shermer," the probably fat woman with oversized glasses said.

"We are aware Ms, uh what was your name again?" John said coarsely. "Ms. Veronica Lipinski, Mr. Bender." "Ms. Lipidski, we thought that by excusing Johnny from school that it would be in his health's best interest, we would never want to subject him to further school absences," John said, he knew his father would never talk like this, but what had to be done had to be done. "Well, if these continue Mr. Bender, I'm sure that the Dean Mr. Vernon would have no hesitation in holding John back another year." The woman said sternly. "Oh, uh, Dick Vernon would do that, Ms. Lipidski?" Bender said stifling a laugh. "Yes, Mr. Bender, he would, well have a good day." And with that the woman hung up. John was going to have to play it safe with ditching class from now on.

He thought about how he kind of had a reason to go to school now other than academics. He had a few new friends, well hopefully. Andy shocked him; they had fought along side each other. Andy sacrificed his friendships with a few of his asshole jock friends for him. He never would have expected this from him. Claire had surprised him as well, they had a fun time ditching school, they got a long overdue lunch, they drove around in her sweet car, and then they topped it off with little kissy kissy session outside his neighborhood. He thought about how he made her drop him off at the entrance of his neighborhood, he did not want her to see where he lived. He knew she was better than that, but he wasn't ready for that, but he didn't care, he now had a girlfriend, it was like 'totally ofish' he thought in a mock preppy girl voice.

Allison was sitting on her couch watching TV when her parents got home. "Hi mom," Allison said uncharacteristically. "Oh hi Allison," Her mother said quietly, almost surprised that her daughter was greeting her. Mr. Reynolds walked past them hastily not wanting to be caught up in familial conversation. Allison wondered why she was talking to them. They didn't talk to her ever, but she figured that her parents might reciprocate if she made an effort. "How was your day?" Mrs. Reynolds asked Allison. "It was good, and yours?" "Ohh it was alright, everything's backed up at work," Her mother said disinterestedly as she walked into the kitchen. The conversation had ended as quickly as it started, but it was an improvement.

She thought about what Andy was probably going through right now. His parents were probably yelling at him, at least as far as she knew they weren't beating him like what Bender got. She pictured Andy sitting on a chair in the middle of the room while his father stood there and screamed at him about how wrestling was his life. She hadn't participated in athletics since she was a small girl. When she played soccer she would stand there and when she got the ball she would either pick it up, or she would take it straight to the goal and score. In T-ball she would sit in the outfield and pick flowers and weeds. It was no surprise to her parents when she asked them if she could quit. They didn't fight it; they probably figured it saved them a trip to the park every afternoon.

She sat in her living room staring at the television but not watching it, while her parents ate dinner in the next room. Allison was worried about Andy, he had really stuck his neck out for Bender, and she hoped that Bender would be appreciative of what he did for him. Andy not only lost a match, but he also lost a few friends, granted those goons were assholes, but still. She enjoyed her walk with him, Andy was so strange to her, once the layers are peeled off she could see them being together. She, however, could not see herself with a 'guy who rolls around with other guys.'

She knew that sacrifices had to be made, and wasn't sure what she would have to give up, thankfully not friends as Andy had already done. She wondered what her parents would think if she over got to bring him over. They would probably be indifferent to him; she wondered if they would care about someone like John. Allison had been kissed before, but the boy ended up telling her that he did it on a bet. That did wonders for her self-esteem. Well, she now had a boy who liked her and she was sure that out of fear of missing matches he steered clear of gambling.

Claire looked up from her French 2 book to see her mother standing in front of her. Her arms were crossed and she had a stern look on her face. "Did your father tell you it was alright to skip class again?" Mrs. Standish asked her daughter with resentment. "No mom Dad had nothing to do with this," Claire replied disinterestedly. "Than who had _something_ to do with this?" "Mom, I just had a really bad day and I needed to come home, that's all," Claire explained without putting much effort into this lie. "Claire you came home at around 6, in my day of school we were done with class and home by no later than 3 in the afternoon." Claire hated when her mom talked about her 'schooling',

"Mom I just needed some time to clear my head, I went for a drive." Claire explained. "Claire, you need to be thinking about your future, what about college?" "Mom, you don't need to patronize me because you got your MRS degree at Loyola Maryland," Claire snapped. "Excuse me, you do NOT talk like that!" Mrs. Standish shouted at her daughter. Claire rolled her eyes and looked away, her mom was stunned by Claire's cheek. And with that her mom stormed out of the room leaving an aggravated Claire alone in her sizeable, pink, pink room.

She looked back down at her book, French was easily her favorite subject in school, she loved the language, she loved the refinement, she loved the eloquence, and she loved how John hated it. She reflected on the events of the day; the fight was bad, but it turned into a positive experience with John. She stood up to her friends, she didn't really need to, but she did it anyway. Claire figured that her friends would accept her, they weren't horrible people, but her reputation and public image would definitely take a hit because of the fight. People would not understand her being with John, and same story with Andy. Andy was definitely in trouble with most of his friends, before she rushed out of the cafeteria, she saw Andy hit Mitch Edson.

Everyone was making sacrifices because of Saturday, she was skeptical about the reception the group would get, but she didn't think people would ever freak out about it. She entertained the idea of having all her new friends over. That would be really fun, her parents wouldn't really care; Claire had had a few parties in her high school career. If not a party, she could always just have them over for dinner; even thought hat would be lame, stupid fun things were not as important to her anymore.

She wondered if she would be able to go to the hockey game with John. She didn't know what would happen with her punishment for ditching class. There was a strong possibility of John being grounded; actually there was a stronger possibility of something worse happening to him. She felt really bad about dropping John off today; he wouldn't let her near his house. He said something stupid and stubborn like he 'wanted to walk' but she could tell he didn't want her to see where he lived. It was inevitable, but perhaps they'd get there sooner than later, or so she hoped.

Andy's ears hurt, they literally hurt; the feeling he had in his ears reminded him of what it felt like after a concert. He could hardly hear his radio; he was sitting on his bed looking out the window, it was dark out, it was light when his dad started in on him. He had never been yelled at so much in his life. His mother tried to calm his father down, but Andy was not escaping his wrath this time. After his father was done with him, his mother came in to pick up the pieces. She was comforting and supportive, she consoled him that they just wanted him to go to a good school and be happy.

Fortunately, he could still keep his scholarships he had lined up, the match he would miss was not an important one; there were no scouts or recruiters coming this weekend. He was thankful for this because he knew it would be his ass, not because he truly cared about whether or not some bloodsucking recruiters got to see him pound some kid from the west side who didn't stand a chance.

He never had a chance to think about the events of the day, his right fist was sore from the action. He wondered if he could ever recover his friendships with Mitch, Chris, and some of the other guys. He cursed them for instigating the fight with Bender. They knew he would fight back, he had to; but what they hadn't expected was Andy helping him out. It felt really good to fight those guys, they deserved every hit. Andy didn't hate them at all, but he knew they deserved it for some of the things they've done. Every single one of the people he hit today had done something on par, or even worse than what he had done to Larry Lester. He knew this was his punishment for what he did to that poor guy. He wasn't going to apologize to him yet, but he would have to some day.

He wondered if he would be able to go to the art show. An art show could not sound less appealing to Andy, but what did sound appealing was a day with Allison. He knew he would have a fun time, he would pretend to be interested, they'd walk around, do something mushy like hold each others hand, maybe they'd see a movie after, do something normal. He tried not to think about it. It was probably not going to happen, with the way his father reamed him today, he was gonna be in his room a lot in the next week.

Andy's thoughts were interrupted when his bedroom door opened. Andy looked up, his father was standing in the doorway, "Hey sport, sorry I yelled at ya earlier, I was just angry. I don't want to see you lose your chances at school and wrestling, and your future." His father sounded sincere, but Andy wasn't having it. "Pop, I don't regret what I did, they asked for it," "I know, and I'm not sayin' you can't stick up for yourself, I mean, your manhood was bein' threatened." Andy knew his father would make it about this. "Dad, I was sticking up for a friend, not my manhood," "Whose this kid? Someone I know?" "Nah dad, you wouldn't know him." "He play anything?" "No, this kids like a slacker type," Andy finished; he could tell his dad wasn't liking that part. "Well, let's just try and be smart about people, and the fights, you know?" his father said and he left. Andy looked back outside his window, his old man would freak if he knew he John Bender.

Brian finished up all of his homework early that night. He started as soon as he got home, and he rushed through every bit of it. He was glad to be done, he needed some free time. He looked around his room for something to do, his parents rarely allowed him to watch TV on the weekdays, so he had to make due with whatever he could find. He looked at some unfinished Star Wars models he had been working on this month, a half finished Tie-Fighter, and an X-Wing that needed to be painted.

About twenty-seven minutes later he finished and painted both. Brian may be bad at building things that functioned in a household, but if it had something to do with space, he could build it. He had exhausted his activities for the evening. It was too late to call a friend, he was also grounded; he decided just to go downstairs to see if he could find something to do. He walked downstairs to hear his parents talking about bills and how money was tight and whatnot. Brian couldn't stand to hear stuff like that.

It was ironic to Brian how two people as smart as his parents could ever be struggling to make ends meet. Well, his family was making ends meet, they weren't struggling; but compared to what he was being promised for an engineering degree, he wondered what happened to his father. Mr. Johnson was a brilliant man, he did not wear the pants in the relationship with his wife by any means, but he was brilliant. His father was an extremely passive person, who never really got into it with Brian about grades, behavior and whatnot, his mother was the disciplinarian, an expert one at that.

"Brian, finished your homework already?" Brian heard his father called over to him as he sat on the couch. "Yeah, I had an easy day, pop," Brian said, turning on the television. "Hey Brian, would you come in here please?" His mother call, Brian complied. "How are your grades this term so far?" his mother inquired. "They're all good except for shop, mom," "Brian, we need you to get that up, we're going to be visiting colleges this summer!" Mrs. Johnson said callously. "I know mom, I'm gonna work really hard on this one." "Well, get to it, and it'll be all fine," "Yes mom, can I go watch some TV?" Brian asked hopefully. "Brian, it's a weeknight, I'm sure you can find something to look over for school, aren't midterms are in three weeks?" his father said sternly, not looking up from his bills.

Brian walked upstairs, he thought of his friends (again). And it hit him. The fight! He couldn't believe he forgot about that. He needed to find out what happened. Where they okay? Where they kicked out of school? How badly did Bender get it for this one?

He racked his disproportionately sized brain for ideas to find out what happened. He couldn't leave the house. But he could call, there was nothing in the agreement of being grounded that said you couldn't make a phone call. He ran down to the kitchen, past his parents, to the cabinet. He quickly located and retrieved the school phone book. He ran upstairs to the phone in the hallway. He looked up the first name he could fine, Bender, John. Brian immediately turned the page away, he was afraid of even calling that house. Clarke, Andrew; no, Standish, Claire, okay.

He dialed the number, it rang for almost a minute; no answer. He hung up the phone, frustrated. How was he ever going to find out what happened. Well, it was late, it's understandable that they didn't answer his call. He elected not to pursue this further, figuring he'd found out in the morning. He bid his parents goodnight, and he unrestfully headed for bed.


	5. Tuesday

Hey sorry I haven't been able to post, midterms, but bear with me I have spring break in a week and a half, and I'll be able to update several times during that time. Thank you for reading and reviewing, I'm really enjoying writing this story, I hope there's some enjoyment on your end. Review more, give me some tips to prevent writer's block from ever happening.

----------------------------------------------------

At 7:35 AM Tuesday morning, Brian got out of his father's car, bid him farewell, and walked up the front steps into Shermer high school. It had not been a particularly eventful ride to school. His dad complained a little bit about traffic, mulling over the solutions Shermer should implement to reduce traffic congestion. His father offered to help him with his Shop projects from now on, he was trying to be empathetic toward his son's plight. His father was likely to be almost as horrible at building things as he was.

He walked over to this locker, entered in his combination, and opened his locker. Looking at the contents of his only private space in the building, he remembered the large grimy brown paper bag that Bender retrieved from his locker days before. He looked through his locker; considering all the possibilities of where he would hide the substance in those grimy brown paper bags. It was a perplexing situation; on one hand he would never risk keeping the contents with him at all times, but on the other hand, they check lockers all the time for this kind of thing. For someone so academically incompetent and apathetic, Bender seemed pretty bright for such a burner.

"Hey Brian," Brian heard Allison quietly say from behind him. "Oh hey Allison, good morning," Brian said uncomfortably. "Do you have class soon?" Allison asked. "No one has class for another fifteen minutes actually," Brian said dully. "Oh, I guess you're right," she said about to turn and walk away. "Have you talked to Andy lately?" Brian added quickly before she walked too far. He wanted to find out what happened yesterday at lunch. "Yeah, I talked to him yesterday at school," she answered inconsequentially. "Well, what happened with him at lunch?" He asked, she looked almost shocked by his question. She went on explaining the story with a frustrating indifference to what was going on. She let him know why they fought, what happened, and that he had been suspended from his wrestling match.

"Wow," was all Brian could say about the story. He was so surprised about what Andy had done, he had given up something that he had valued so highly. His wrestling, his friends were all put on the line to stand up for Bender. He was disheartened to hear that Claire had left Bender out to dry, he hoped that they would be fine, and that she wouldn't do something like that to him when they're interaction finally happened.

"Poor sport was pretty upset when I talked to him," Allison said sounding a bit more cheerful. "I'm sure everything will work out, he's not missing a big match, I think it's against Lyons," Brian assured a relaxed Allison. "Yeah, I invited him to an art show on Saturday," She said giggling. "I'm sure he'll be really into that," Brian laughed.

Brian liked the thought of them spending time together, maybe they'd want to hang out with him sometime. "Hey, uh Allison, do you think that sometime in the near future, it would be fun for us all to get together or something?" Brian asked her insecurely. "What for drinks or something?" she joked. "Yeahh, something like that, or just lunch, I don't drink." Brian informed her, but she probably assumed he didn't drink. "Yeah, we'll have to do that, if not all of us, then at least you, Andy, and I," Allison said while walking away as the students around Brian began filing into their classes.

Andy trudged through the halls, shoulders slumped, looking at his feet as he walked. He had never walked through the halls like this in his life. The Andrew Clark right then was the antithesis of the Andrew Clark of last week, or even yesterday before lunch. He was afraid, he was almost embarrassed to be himself. He sensed people's eyes on him; the scathing feeling he had as their gazes tore through him. Perhaps he was thinking to deeply into this. Maybe people weren't constantly judging him. Maybe they were. Maybe people hadn't heard, this was extremely unlikely.

He was afraid to be at Shermer High School today, there were probably a few members of the offensive line gunning for him. He had no idea if anyone would back him up. Bender would feel compelled to back him up, he would also feel compelled to punch anyone who owned up to being a varsity lettermen. He had fought his own friends, but not in the way it would be acceptable. Had he gotten drunk, and called someone's girlfriend a bitch he could have punched those guys and gotten away with looking like a jerk, but he had taken the side of the enemy: John Bender.

He looked up and saw a few of his old pals standing by their lockers 'screwing around,' as his father would call it. He approached them a bit too fast for his own comfort. They were getting closer, he shifted over so he was walking down the middle of the hallway. As he walked by them he tried to say something, to turn and talk to them, but he froze, he was a walking stick. They all stared at him meanly, some of them even stood up form leaning on their lockers. He didn't know what was going to happen, but he was nervous. He saw a big football player name Ted Brady shrug forward, clenching his fists tensely. He tried staring Andy down, but he wouldn't give up that easily. He knew there was going to be confrontation soon, but he was hoping to at least attend a class before he had to stand up to his friends.

Andy did not tell his body to stop walking, but it did. He stopped almost right in front of Ted and stared back at him. They were in lock down, Andy was not in a good position, but years of acting tough and being a 'winner' kept his composure. Ted breathed loudly, began to step towards him when they were abruptly interrupted by a stern but playful voice.

"You alright Andy?" John Bender asked from behind him. Speaking of the devil, Andy thought recalling how he just thought about Bender having his back. "Yeah, I'm good." He answered, not breaking his stare. "Let's go to class," John said, beginning to walk. Andy reluctantly followed him, not really caring about what those guys thought; however, he didn't want to concede anything to someone like Ted Brady. Walking away he heard one of the athletes mutter 'you guys don't go to class' or something, and he heard someone say "You wouldn't know what to do if you went to class, jock strap."

Andy looked back and surprisingly, there had been three or four of John's friends with him. John Bender sure paid his dues quickly; he even bought support. It had definitely been complete luck that they showed up. He never knew he would be walking down the halls with a contingency of delinquents like these guys. He wondered how many concealed weapons and containers of illegal controlled substances were carried by these guys. He was kind of embarrassed to walk with Bender and his friends, but he had to be grateful. They had his back when no one else had been there; and he didn't even know any of these guys' names. He worried about the reaction people would have to the standoff, people were probably stupid enough to think he was a burner now.

"Thanks Bender, that was a pretty tight spot," he said plainly to Bender. "I owed you one, so don't mention it. Hey boys this is Andy, he may smell of the locker room but he's cool, Andy this is Spencer, Jack, and Christian." "Good to meet you guys, but hey, I'll see you all around, I gotta get to class." Andy said as he headed over to his locker retrieved his books and went to class. Who would of thought that people like Ted and his friends would hold grudges like this. They were all assholes. But even though he knew they were all assholes, he wished he could at least try to be friends with those he was closest with before Saturday detention.

Claire walked over to her locker after leaving her first period class. She went through her books replacing the ones she had used, and retrieving those she needed. She thanked god that she wasn't grounded for that evening. Her parents lectured her a bit, argued a little bit, but were too concerned with their own personal lives to formulate a punishment for her. She went to bed exhausted and grateful that her parent's self-absorbed dispositions prevented her from being punished, for once.

Her Tuesday night was free, so if John's was free, they were hopefully going to a hockey game. She was excited, but weary of getting her hopes up, John was in trouble for fighting, it wasn't likely he would be able to go. To be safe, she refrained from putting together an outfit, something she would have normally done immediately after being invited. Well, she hadn't physically put it together, but had mentally concocted the perfect look for this occasion. She even asked her father what colors the Blackhawks wore, and after asking if the boy she was kissing on Saturday was from Canada, he said they wore red and black. She wondered if he would pick her up, or if she would have to drive. She knew how proud he was; and so he would likely arrange for transportation.

"So Claire, what was all that yesterday? I thought you just had your period?" Claire heard her friend Jackie say from behind her. Claire turned to look at her friend, who was standing further away from her than natural, almost like Claire was dangerous. "I'm sorry I blew you off yesterday Jackie, but-" "But what, Claire? Are you just gonna blow off your friends now, for a boy? You didn't even bother to call and explain. I was worried. We were all worried." "Jackie, I'm sorry I blew you off, I had a bad day, among other stuff," Claire said, trying to calm down her friend. "Claire we don't want to see you ditching us for no reason," "What do you mean?" Claire asked, starting to get defensive. "Claire, that's John Bender, okay, I'm not sure you know that, seeing how you're all lovie dovie with him," Jackie said scathingly. "Okay, Jackie, I am not ditching you for a boy, John is a good guy, and since when do I need to listen to you about who I date?" Claire blurted. Jackie stood there, stunned, hurt. "Jackie, all I mean to say is that I want to be friends with you, and John. I'm not making a choice between you guys, unless you're gonna go ahead and force me into that situation." Claire explained, hoping this would smoothen things over. "Claire, you're like, one of my best friends, your friendship is like major, I'm just worried, okay?" Jackie said admittedly.

"Jackie, I am friends with you, of course. Let's go shopping tomorrow and get dinner or something, and we can talk about this more, okay? Invite the girls if you want." Claire said sounding friendly. "Well what are you doing tonight?" Jackie asked, sensing something was up because Claire would normally ask to go shopping sooner. Claire smiled, Jackie was so cunning in the ways of north-shore teenage conversation. "Well, he invited me to go to a hockey game," Claire answered admittedly. The both smiled at each other like they normally did when something happened with a boy, Claire had her. "Oh Claire, that's the funniest first date you or I've ever been on," Jackie said laughing along with Claire. The conversation had taken a turn for the better, Claire's negotiations seemed to work; for now. As they concluded their conversation, they hugged and separated. Claire knew how fake and fickle her friends were, but they weren't horrible. Jackie would likely talk behind her back, and she would never like John, but they were friends and that was that. Claire, was relieved, if Jackie was okay with her, than they all were, that's how much her friends thought for themselves.

She went to her class smiling, she hoped she'd see John soon so she could find out if he could see her. She entertained the idea of buying a hockey jersey after school to fit in more. She hoped John wouldn't make her drink beer tonight, well that wasn't entirely true.

Allison sat down next to her locker at the beginning of her lunch period. She and Andy had arranged for them to eat lunch at her locker that day. Allison put her knees to her chest and rested her chin, she was tired. She seemed just to scrape by with the bare minimum in terms of sleep needed for a human being to survive. She had a meeting with her guidance counselor later that day, he was concerned that she wasn't getting enough extra-curricular activities to put on to a college application. That was so typical for her high school, the Shermer area was notorious for preparing their students for college. It was by far the preppiest place in the world, she thought. She hated the thought of college, she didn't need that to get away, she needed herself to get away.

Allison's thoughts were interrupted when John Bender sat down next to her boisterously. "Sorry if I'm disturbing your lunch as a hermit, but do you mind if I enjoy a meal with you?" John asked merrily. "You've already sat down, and you don't have a lunch," Allison said reservedly. "That's very perceptive of you Allison, and thank you for reminding me, if you will observe, I will demonstrate how one is to solve this problem," John told her.

Allison sat there quietly as she watched John sit and scope out each passerby, all with bagged lunches. She noticed him spot a small squirly freshman with a standard bagged lunch approach him. The unnoticing pipsqueak was passing them when John swiftly and masterfully snatched the bag out of his hand. "What the, HEY, that's my lunch!" The kid exclaimed but not making a move, cause if he did, he'd be toast. "Ohh, I'm sorry, this is your lunch? I could have sworn my mom packed it for me this morning. Please, I don't want any trouble her guy, I just want to sit with my friend here and eat my lunch in peace, please go find your own," John said in mock exasperation. Allison laughed, she knew it was mean, but they shared a common interest, and talent: pilfering.

The defeated kid was just about to turn and walk away when they were interrupted. "John give the kid his lunch back!" Claire said as she sped over to John. 'Oh come on!" John could hardly say before Claire grabbed the lunch returned it to the kid and pushed him forward to escape "Claire that was my lunch!" John said complaining. "Shut up, you big baby. Why do you have to steal everything?" Claire lectured putting her jacket down before she sat next to John. This was probably the first time Claire had sat down in the hallway, Allison could see it on her face.

"Claire, my personal chef from home is on sick leave today, what am I supposed to eat?" John asked her. "You can have some of my lunch," Claire suggested, with a devilish grin, she knew what was coming. "For heavens sake, I'll starve before eating your lunch, what have you got raw fish eggs wrapped in lima bean?" John joked. "Actually fish eggs are caviar, and it's delicious. "You can have some of my lunch if you want," Allison offered before one of John's melodramatic refusals. "The two people from Saturday that HAVE to be offering me food are the two that eat the weirdest shit," He laughed. "Where's sporto, and his seven course feast when you need him?" John said.

Allison had forgot all about Andy, she looked at the clock and read that she had been waiting for a few minutes. She looked glumly, she hoped he would be there soon. She tried to keep the thoughts of him ditching her out of her head. And right when a little bit of doubt trickled in to her mind she heard him. "I only have three sandwiches today bender but maybe I could lend you one, hey Allison, look who I found," Andy said cheerfully walking toward them with Brian at his heels, trying to keep up.

They all greeted each other and they sat to eat lunch. Sitting in a circle the five of them, together, for the first time since Saturday in the library. Allison tried to think how this was a bit different now, but it wasn't at all. She smiled at them, and they all smiled back. "This is nice," Claire said quietly. She waved at a couple walking down the hall together, they seemed to notice the five of them, but they didn't jump out of their skins as it had been prognosticated.

John sat next to Claire for the first time since yesterday, he couldn't believe how much he had missed it. He was so whipped, but he would deal with that later. He was picking at her salad for the chicken she didn't eat. He looked around happily at his surprising group of new friends. It was so mushy, but he thoroughly enjoyed sitting with them. Brian had called them the breakfast club after the nickname for detention, John guessed it fit.

"Sporto here, has recently joined my gang," John said as he and Andy laughed. None of the others really understood, but this information was probably being spread to half the school by now. The dweeb and Allison were talking about something that had to do with teachers and Andy was following along with the conversation, leaving him and Claire, picking at her salad together. She leaned towards him, he was surprised by this, but he didn't mind on bit.

"Are you grounded?" Claire asked him worriedly. John laughed, "Does it look like I get grounded?" He asked rhetorically. "Well, I was just wondering if you were still going to take me out tonight," the princess asked. "Yeah, I'll still take you on a daate," John said playfully. Claire perked up at his answer looking excited, she couldn't resist. "Okay, what time should we go? Where is it? How will we get there?" Claire asked twenty more questions before John could answer any of them. "I'll pick you up, I think," John answered, unsure of where he was going to get a car. "Okay, what time?" Claire asked, John hoped her laundry list of questions wouldn't go on like this. "I don't know, hmm 7 o'clock game, uh, how about 5 45," John answered. "Okay, It's a date," Claire said excitedly. He never remembered her getting so bunched up on Saturday over anything. "It's not a date, it's a hockey game," John reminded her. "Okay, Mr. tough guy, it's a hockey game," Claire said in a mock boy's voice.

The newly reunited "Breakfast Club" sat, ate, and talked for the rest of the lunch period. They seemed to get along really well. They didn't get all emotional, they joked around, made fun of each other, and John and Andy ended up having a food fight. Brian had mustard all over his face, Claire was halfway down the hall in a flash trying to avoid getting her blouse dirty, and Allison was in the bathroom for the rest of the period cleaning up. and Andy and John almost got detention together again. John thought about how dangerous of a combination Andy and him were. They were even more trouble than John and Spencer. Sizing them up he decided Andy was bigger and thus easier to get 'out of trouble' with. It was a good lunch period, and it was a good group of people.

------------------------------

Hope this was okay, I think it might have been a bit tacky, sorry It's been a while since I last graced the halls of high school. Read and Review, give me some good ideas for plot. And if you don't I'll cut Bender's hair off. I'm warning you.


	6. Tuesday Evening

John looked at the mirror with unusual attention. He fixed his hair over and over again, he must have been there for at least ten minutes. He turned away for a second and, before he could put on his Blackhawks sweater, he looked at the mirror. "I look like a greasy bohunk," he said realizing his hair had been distastefully slicked back. He never really thought about his appearance. He decided he wasn't going to start now.

John left his room, he had been planning this next move for a while. "Hey pop, you working the game tonight?" He yelled to his father. "What? Why, you have the tickets right?" His dad said unceremoniously from somewhere near the kitchen. "Yeah, I just wanted to know if you were using the car tonight," John said, hoping he would get the answer he wanted, he needed. His father didn't answer right away, meaning he either had not heard John, or was busy. John walked over to his father who was in the kitchen looking at the sink. "Me and your mother are thinking of going to the tavern tonight," John's father said gruffly. "Once I fix this sink, and your mother gets home from that joke she calls a job I'll head over there." "Well, I'm gonna take this girl to the game, and do you think if I dropped you and mom off, and paid for a cab, you'd let me take the car?" John said hopefully, his father was a bastard, but not totally unreasonable, this also meant he could drink more. His father laughed, "Johnnie wants something, haha you only come around me when there's somethin' in it for you huh." John expected this type of guff, his father _was _a bastard.

"What time's the game? We're playin' the Blues right?" his father asked. "Yeah, it's a 7 o'clock game too, so if I wanted to go, I'd have to leave in like an hour or so," John said. "Drop us off before you go, and pick us up after the game and I'll let you take the car." And with that the deal was done, they separated. John steered clear of his father in order to avoid any situations that would lead to potential arguments, he even helped him with the sink momentarily.

His mother got home, his parents bickered a little bit, and they set off for the bar the Bender family made their haunt, even John was allowed to drink there so long as he didn't bring any underage friends. The tavern was an old working class bar where all of the men met after work, or during the day if they didn't have jobs. He dropped them off and set out for Claire's house. His clanky ford truck sputtered through the streets. The further he got from his neighborhood and closer he got to the Standish's house the nicer the houses got, the houses were getting really nice, really fast.

He was getting really nervous, but he tried not to think about it. He had his tickets, he was dressed as usual, he looked good, in his opinion at least. He pulled into the street he was supposed to and his jaw immediately dropped. These houses were huge. "Claire lives in fucking Buckingham Palace," John said to himself pulling into her driveway. He pulled up halfway, turned off the car and was almost out of the car when he saw her. She probably had been at the door so he would not have to come in and meet her parents, she was embarrassed. John knew she had every reason, no matter. She walked out with a nice leather coat, a skirt, and a Blackhawks jersey on. "Since when do you own a hockey jersey?" He asked her as she approached him. "Since 4 o'clock."

Allison finished her dinner and made her way up to her room without saying anything. Dinner had been a little better than normal, she talked with her parents a little bit, but not too much. She sat looked around at her room. It was very dark, and very gloomy, and very messy. She thought about changing things around a little bit, make things brighter. She looked at her bed, she hadn't made her bed since long before high school. She sat down to start a bit of homework when she heard her mom call for her. She went down the stairs, not bothering to yell back, her mother wasn't worth the effort. She walked down and saw two pairs of feet, one with a pair of old slippers and slacks, and another with jeans and sneakers, no one wore sneakers in her family.

"Allison, there's a boy here for you, I'm sorry what was your name again?" Her mother said to her visitor. "Andrew, Mrs. Reynolds, Andrew Clark," Andy said. 'Bond, James Bond' Allison thought to herself with a smirk. "Allison, I didn't know you were expecting company," Mrs. Reynolds said cheerfully as she walked in to the other room. Her parents were not used to her having people over, so they probably didn't mind.

"I decided to come pay you a visit," Andy said shyly. "A nice surprise," she said reassuringly. They stood there uncomfortably for a few moments until Allison finally decided that it was okay to be welcoming to her first visitor in a while. "Well, you can come in, do you want something to drink?" She said as welcomingly as she could, she was not used to this. "I'm fine, thanks. I actually can't stay long I was just topping in to say 'hi,'" he said to her distaste. "What do you have going on?" She asked. Andy smiled for a little bit, he laughed and admittedly said "Actually I don't have anything going on, I just didn't want to intrude." They both laughed at this, and after a few moments, an awkward silence poked its nasty head once again.

Allison knew her parents weren't really going to mind, her father wasn't even home anymore, so she decided to gesture up the stairs. "Really, you sure that's okay?" Andy said reprehensibly. "Yeah, come on, don't worry sport, you're not getting any tonight," Allison said walking up the stairs. Andy followed quietly as she led him up the stairs and through the hallway to her room. Her house was small, older, and not well lit, the mood reflected this.

They finally got to her room, she stood in front of him looking embarrassed. "It's nice," he said simply, he was clearly not impressed, but was a nice guy. "You're lying, and you're bad at it," she said laughing. "I've been meaning to clean it for a long time, but I've never gotten around to it," Allison explained. "When did you get Atari?' Andy asked. "I didn't know you were into video games," he added surprised. "I uh, liberated it," she said laughing. She sat down and kicked at the plastic thing lightly. "That's funny, they're really fun, my cousins from Wilmette have one," Andy added gesturing to see if it was okay to sit next to her on the bed.

Allison didn't like the Atari, she didn't want to seem to easy, but she thought this would be a nice gesture. "Do you want it, I don't play, I've never even used it," she said quickly. "I could never," he said before getting cut off by her kiss. Allison didn't want to kiss him, but she did. She decided to turn this to her advantage, so she broke away, sex _was_ her weapon, after all. 'If you don't take it, you won't get any of that anymore," she said with a dastardly laugh. They laughed, he ended up accepting the Atari, among other things, before he left to go home. She smiled at the empty sport on her floor where the Atari had been before the unexpected visit.

Claire and John entered Shermer in John's repulsive care at around 10:30 that night. She tried not to mind that the car was repulsive, but she was so accustomed to cars that were relatively new, or at least clean. She had a great time at the game, the seats were surprisingly good, and the hockey team she was rooting for won, the only reason she knew who to cheer for was because she had bought that hockey jersey. John seemed to be so into the game, and she hardly knew what was going on. She really liked watching it, but not just for John's sake. It was fast, exciting, she liked it when the goalies in their big pads made saves.

"Thank you for taking me," she broke the silence with a smile. "No problemo sweet thang," he said jokingly. "Hey do you mind if I pick my parents up real quick? That was part of the deal in how I got the car for the night," John said nervously. Claire could tell he had been dreading this. Claire was frightened by the thought of Mr. Bender, she knew what he wasn't exactly a cup of tea on Sunday. "Yeah, of course, I'll get to meet your parents this way," she said trying to sound happy. "On second thought, I'll just check in at the tavern and tell them I'll be a little bit longer," he said quickly. She knew he was embarrassed about his parents, but she wanted to meet them. "No, that's fine, I don't want to impose any more time on you," she said trying to be as considerate as possible.

"It's right here, so I'll be back in a second," John said as he pulled in to the gravel parking lot of this crummy miserable looking bar. He pulled up close to the bar's entrance and she could hear the loud, rowdy crowd inside, this is not what the Standishes did, ever. "Hold on, one sec," he said as he hopped out of the car without turning it off. She could see him running up to the door as if he were doing an errand, he was met at the door by a burly man in a black t shirt, jeans, a grizzly beard on him. The way they were talking was rather friendly, as if they had known each other for a while. Claire was surprised by this, although she didn't know what he really got at in his time outside of school and detention, she knew he wasn't of legal drinking age. They parted with a high-five, and John headed back to the car, she heard him say something like 'I'll see you tomorrow' when he opened the car door and got back in.

"What happened to your parents?" Claire asked as he closed the door and put the car in drive. "Old man got the boot over an hour ago, he and my mom got a ride though," he said indifferently. Claire didn't know what to say to this, she definitely didn't want to laugh, but she didn't want to sound concerned and risk looking stupid. "You have to be home soon?" John asked abruptly. "Not really, I have no idea where my parents are, my dads probably downtown 'working' and my moms asleep by now," Claire explained, she really didn't know where her parents were, but she wanted the date to continue.

"Well, do you want me to take you home?" John asked. "No, not really, unless you have to be home," Claire said with a smile. John frowned, but it was not the type of frown that meant he was mad at her. "Claire, do you know why my old man was kicked out of the bar?" He said looking at her. They had pulled over without Claire noticing. "I'm sorry, I'm not used to this," Claire said sympathetically. "I could just drop you off, I know you don't need this," John said frustratingly. "No, let's park somewhere, I don't want to go home," Claire said without realizing what John thought she meant. John smiled mischievously. "Not like that!" Claire said slapping him on the arm.

Claire was finally dropped off quarter after midnight. It had been a fun date, they talked, kissed, and threw rocks at this lake by her house. She also had him remove all the other girls he 'considered' from his wallet, he didn't seem to mind. She snuck in to her room and immediately passed out from exhaustion. It has been a good date.

Andy got home from his nighttime jog with his brother at around eleven. "Hey, you work hard enough and you're gonna take state for sure," his older brother Rob said supportively. Rob, like Andy, had been a product of his father's obsession with competition and athletics. Unlike Andy, Rob had not been as successful in winning state. Rob was a great wrestler, but never realized his full potential, he was sitting as a reserve for Purdue University's wrestling team on an academic scholarship. Rob seemed to have everything figured out, he had just come home from college to take 'personal week.'

"Yeah, who knows, hopefully I'll do well in the next few weeks," Andy said indifferently. "Hey you're gonna have to concentrate though, and stay out of trouble," Rob said slightly less sociably. "Dad put you up to saying this?" Andy asked with a frown. "Nah, I just don't want to see anything happen to you, you're too good. Plus, I hear you're getting recruited by Iowa, you know they demolished us last week?" Rob said. Purdue was matched up against many of the schools Andy was looking at.

This didn't make any sense to Andy why Rob was in town if he was in the middle of wrestling season. "So why are you in town again, a personal week?' Andy asked. "Yeah, it's spring break for Purdue, and I wanted to be home for a few days," Rob said, walking into the kitchen. Andy didn't really know what to say, he knew he would never get spring break off in college, it was smack dab in the middle of the season, and it was a Tuesday. Andy walked in behind him, about to ask what his coach said when his brother changed the subject.

"So where were you today when I came home?" Rob asked, opening the fridge. "Never underestimate the glory of food from home," he added before Andy could answer. "I was at a friends," he added. "This friend give you an Atari?" he added with a smirk. "Yeah, I know, isn't it sweet. "Andrew you didn't steal this did you?" his brother added with a grown up voice. They both laughed. Allison had stolen it, Andy didn't know from whom, and didn't want to. 'Nah, I've been in too much trouble lately to pull shit like that," Andy said as if the question was serious. "You wanna play?" The two brothers looked at each other and without saying a word, they ran down to the basement and the competition ensued. It was intense, even heated. It was like they were ten and twelve years old again, they even resorted to smacking the game controllers out of each other's hands in order to give them the advantage.

"So, who was this friend you visited, and who do I need to personally thank for such a beautiful machine?" Rob asked still looking at the screen. "Some girl from the east side of town, kinda by the mall, she's cool," Andy said still concentrating on the screen. "Anyone I know?" He asked, Andy knew he would ask this. "Na you wouldn't know her," Andy answered. "Nice girl, giving you a video game and whatnot, she rich or something?" Rob asked. Andy thought about saying yes, he didn't care that Allison's home wasn't big or anything like Claire's, so he said "No, just really nice I guess." "Sounds like a keeper," Rob replied before beating Andy in the second round. "Ugh, I'll get you back, but later, I got homework," Andy said getting up. "But yeah, she's a keeper."

Brian finished his homework at around 9:30, relatively early, again. He had been working really hard on the classes he knew he could get A's in to combat his abysmal shop grade. He and his father decided to try to figure out this whole using their hands thing for the class. His mom was not happy that he showed up with mustard on his shirt.

He needed to find more activities to do after his homework. He was grounded and he had very few friends around him, so it was getting pretty dull around the house. After realizing, again, he had nothing to do in his own room he decided to walk downstairs. He went to his spot on the couch and turned on the television. He was watching some current events news stories with disinterest when Mr. Johnson strode in an sat down by him. "Hey son, you have your homework done?" His father asked quietly. "Yeah, just finished dad." Brian answered with a sigh. "Brian, your mothers been very worried about you," his father asked leaning in. "I told her I'd get my Shop grade up, dad," Brian didn't need this right now.

"I know its just high school, and whatnot, but we just want you to buckle down. You know, for your future." His father said, trying to sound empathetic. "I know, dad, its just kind of getting old," "I feel like your determination is faltering, son. But don't let it get to you," "Dad, my education is important to me, I won't slip up." Brian insisted and his dad seemed quiet for a little bit, watching the television. "Son, your mother and I want you to do well in school, but we want you to enjoy yourself as well. You've seemed really distant lately, is everything okay?" His father said leaning in. "Yeah, dad, everything's fine." Brian said, he didn't want to talk about this. "Brian, your mothers worried about you using drugs," his father said leaning in even further.

Brian's stomach fell, he had smoked weed with Bender, Andy and Claire just days before, and only once. He never knew something like that would come back to haunt him. "Dad, I've never tried drugs, and never will, okay," Brian said. "We believe you son, well, I never doubted you for a second," his father said defensively. "Well, your mother wanted this, I don't think it's necessary, but, well, your mother wants you to take a drug test." Those words sank deep, Brian was screwed and he knew it.

------------------------


	7. Wednesday

Sorry this has been a long time coming

Sorry this has been a long time coming. I had midterms and was on spring break during which I had been sleeping and drinking a lot. Hope this will satisfy any cravings for breakfast club you might have. Cheers. Happy Easter and St. Pattys Day.

Brian had checked everywhere; the bleachers, the gym, the library (he wasn't surprised when he didn't find him there), the cafeteria, even behind the school. Every minute Brian spent outside of class was a minute spent looking for John Bender. John got him into this mess, well to be fair Brian was one of the first to join him in this irresponsible display of substance abuse, but Brian wanted John to get him out of this mess. Of all the months for the Johnson's to request their son's urine, they had to pick this one.

Brian's father seemed to be on his side, maybe if he kept himself in line his parents wouldn't even make him take it. The possibilities of getting off the hook and the probabilities of him losing his parent's trust for life flew through his head. This was a bad situation that a week ago Brian would never have guessed he would be in. He needed John's help, he would know what to do, he had probably needed to pass many drug tests in his time. He was having no such luck with finding his delinquent friend today.

Brian entertained the idea of using someone else's pee, but what if his mom made him procure 'the sample' in her presence? This was a sticky situation, Brian thought to himself as he opened his locker to get his books for third period. "Hey Brian, hows it going?" Brian heard behind him. Claire was walking towards him with one of her prissy looking blonde friends. "Oh hey Claire, things are alright. Did you end up going to that hockey game with John? I saw that they won last night," Brian said glumly, but conversationally. "Yeah it was really fun, Brian this is Jackie, Jackie, Brian," Claire said enthusiastically. They both exchanged greetings, and Brian got down to business. "Hey have you seen Bender today?" he asked hopefully. "No I haven't, have you? I wonder if he's in school." Claire said, Jackie rolled her eyes; Brian noticed but didn't say anything. "Well if you see him, tell him I need to talk to him," Brian said quietly trying not to give anything away. "Yeah of course, anyway, I have to jet to class, I'll see you at lunch?"

And with that Brian Claire walk away with her friend in her wake. He wondered what it would be like to have someone always walking with him. To constantly be with a friend was a very foreign concept to Brian. Brian wondered if she even realized what she had, friends, money, parents who didn't stifle her. Claire had problems of her own, but Brian just wished that for once he would have someone walking in his wake to class. Right now he would settle for a friend to loan him some pee.

Andy walked out of his third period class after an exhausting lecture about the writing process. English and writing had never been his strength in school, and now that Shermer was preparing him for college, he had to take some tough class making him write college-level essays and whatnot. He had been up late doing homework and was pretty beat, all he wanted to do was sleep it all off. Andy had also thought a lot about his friends, his sport, and his father. His brother had always been into the whole wrestling thing, and that mindset had motivated Andy just enough to try to retake at least a little of what he had before recent events.

He decided late the night before that he was going to try and make peace with the people he had offended and that would be enough. If he could wrestle, have his old friends, and have his new friends, that would make the rest of his high school experience pleasant enough for him. He thought of his graduation and how nice it would be to leave Shermer with Allison as his girlfriend, and to remain a popular athlete, he would also be content with leaving Shermer in one piece.

Andy walked towards his locker to grab a few books. He was just opening it when out of the corner of his eye he saw his friend Mitch, a guy he had hit just a few days ago. Without really thinking about it, Andy caught up to him and tapped him on the shoulder. "Hey, Mitch man, what's up?' He said stupidly, but he got Mitch's attention. "Clark, nothing, you?" Mitch said coolly. "Can we talk real quick?" Andy asked. With a nod they both went to Andy's locker. They stood there leaning in on his locker, an awkward silence, but it wasn't the deadlock Andy had had with Brady the day before, Mitch and him were much closer. Mitch wasn't going to win any awards for diplomacy, but they were close, and he knew he could trust him.

"Mitch, I want to apologize for what happened, it was a complete misunderstanding, things got totally out of hand, and I flipped." Andy explained, Mitch again nodded. "You friends with that trashy kid who punched me?' Mitch asked, this was not the response he was hoping for. "Yeah, you could say that. And I know it's crazy, he's not so bad, but that's how it's gonna be," Andy said sternly. "Yeah, man, this is all kinda weird. Listen, I'm gonna go to class," Mitch said turning away. "Hey Mitch, nothing any of the guys think is really gonna change any of that, but at least accept my apology," Andy said trying to salvage the conversation. Mitch turned and smiled, this relieved any of Andy's fears almost immediately. "Clark, are you getting with that dark looking girl?" Mitch asked with a smirk. "Yeah, what of it?" Andy asked standing up taller. "Dude, you've lost it, but I think that's all cool," Mitch said approvingly and he stuck out his hand, Andy shook it. Andy laughed to himself, for someone with a 2.1 grade point average and a college future smelling of in-state tuition and cheap beer, Mitch wasn't as dense as he let on. "You know that Bender fag is dating Claire Standish, right?" Mitch asked. "Yeah, they're a funny couple, I gotta get to class though, thanks dude, means a lot," Andy said locking his locker and heading the opposite direction.

Andy felt like he was on top of the world. He was going to make it happen, to have the best of both worlds, he could have his wrestling friends, he could have his girlfriend, and he could have his new friends. He wanted to tell Allison about this, he knew she wouldn't jump up and down, but at least she might be happy for him.

Claire walked over to her locker and retrieved her bagged lunch, today she had a lemon chicken breast with wild rice. Her friends had agreed to meet at her locker for lunch today, like the day before. As she closed her locker by habit she began walking, but realized, that her locker was her destination. She shrugged to herself and stepped back, put her jacket down, and sat on the floor. She hoped no one would be judging her by her new lunch spot, it was not like she was sitting on a dirty sidewalk, but it was certainly different from her usual table. She saw a few sophomore girls, cheerleaders, look at her with surprise but they just kept walking.

She recalled her sophomore and junior years at Shermer High School, she was so into the fact that she was popular, and rich, but now she could hardly care. She liked shopping and she was going to hang out with her girlfriends tonight, but it didn't matter as much. Putting much less emphasis on what people looked like or where they were from was a change in her that she was very proud of. Of course, if a girl looked like a zombie, she would mentally point that out, but everyone has their days of looking like shit. The weekend was a few days away, and she had no plans, maybe another date, maybe a party, maybe she would invite a few friends to her lake house in Wisconsin.

"Hey Claire," Andy said sitting down by her, offering her a can of soda. "Hey Andy, hows your day?" Claire asked. "It's good, I'm so tired, I just want a nap, but I have practice, thank god for that," Andy said sarcastically. "That's rough, that's why I quit tennis last year, I HATED having practice every day," Claire agreed as she nodded to Brian as he at down next to her. Allison and Brian had joined them quietly as they were talking, it seemed as though they were coming the same way, but hadn't been talking at all, Claire laughed at the thought.

"Does anyone have Mr. Haggle?" Allison asked the group. "Yeah, I have him for chemistry eighth period," Claire responded, the others didn't have this teacher. "Well he's out today, I just had a free period, apparently that loser is sick or something," Allison said flashing her rare and bashful smile. Claire was excited to not have to go to chemistry, easily her most hated subject in school, it was dirty, smelly, dangerous (she had no sense of measurement, and no steady hand) and a big hassle, which gave Mr. Haggle the title 'Dr Hassle'. "That is good news to me, I can go home early now."

As they ate, conversing about teachers and making fun of other students they knew, they took notice that John wasn't there yet. The minutes passed on, everyone seemed unworried, Claire wasn't worried, but she wanted to see him after their date. Claire looked over at Brian, he suddenly looked white as a sheet. Claire was about to ask him if he was okay, but the ever-perceptive Allison beat her to the punch. "Ralph is everything okay?" Aside from not understanding why Allison called Brian 'Ralph', Claire was a bit annoyed by how she went about asking him. Claire sometimes had little patience with Allison's lack of social skills and extreme lack of empathy, but a more pressing matter to her was Brian.

"Yeah, I'm okay, so none of you have seen John today?" He asked looking around, his face was turning green. The group shook their heads to his dismay, Claire had no idea why he was all of the sudden so distressed. "Why do you need to see John?" Andy asked. "Well, you know how we all tried marijuana on Saturday?" Brian asked, all nodded but Allison, Claire didn't know what about Allison was annoying her, but this annoyed her. "Well, my parents, out of the blue, want me to take a drug test, they think I might be experimenting with controlled substances. They think that's why my grades aren't up to my standards," Brian said plainly, clearly embarrassed. Claire couldn't help but think about what bad timing that was, she felt sorry for Brian, his parents had him on a tight leash. "So you think Bender could help you?" Andy asked, Brian shrugged. "I have no idea, but I'll have to think of something or I'm toast," Brian said.

After the conversation ended, lunch wasn't quite as enjoyable. Claire sat in silence and thought about John, she explored some of the ideas of him ditching, or even that he was in trouble at school and just couldn't come to sit with them. She rarely saw him in the halls unless they were together. She wondered how their relationship could pan out when there was so much between them, so much separating them. She couldn't remember ever seeing him before, she had no idea he existed the previous week. She thought about how many people didn't know or care about John. Maybe he was a nothing, maybe no one would notice if he disappeared, she thought. "I would notice, I would care," Allison said to Claire, snapping her out of her thoughts. Allison was staring at her, she saw right through her. The other two boys sat there looking dumb, this was between the girls. "You don't think I care about John?" Claire asked, sounding hurt, she was hurt. "Doesn't seem like it."

Allison looked at Claire, her stare burning through her. Claire was defenseless, she was taken aback, and she was apparently on the verge of tears. The two boys had no idea what they were talking about, they might as well have bras covering their heads. Claire didn't seem too distressed, she was so full of shit, pretending to care about John. Allison thought how Claire had no idea what went on in John's home, she had no clue what went on in a 'broken home'. Allison didn't either, her home life may be 'unsatisfying' but in no way did her parents ever harm her. This frustrated Allison, she was not one for dealing with things she didn't know about. Her frustration turned into anger. Allison got up, scratched Andy's head, and stormed down the hallway. She was going, going, gone. And not even sporto could catch her.

She didn't even know why she left them. She did not want to be there right now, and she was not used to people caring about whether or not she was there, so it wouldn't matter. She heard them call back to her, she had no idea who did, she had a knack for droning out things she didn't want to hear, this would definitely explain her abysmal biology grade. She decided she wanted to go back to her usual pastime, walking the halls. She walked in silence for a few minutes, and decided to go to her guidance counselor, she was actually supposed to go tomorrow for an appointment. This appointment was not for her future or for academics, but for her school diagnosed depression.

She walked into the counseling office looking for Dr. Hashimoto. "Oh hello Allison, how are you?' said Grace Mackenzie, the office's secretary and a friendly woman that Allison liked. "Hi, is Dr. Hashimoto in?" Allison asked. Before Grace could respond they were interrupted by some yelling in one of the rooms to Allison's right. "I fucking told you already, I fucking fell, how retarted are you?" Allison heard a voice she knew and a yell she knew even better. "Now John, settle down! I'm trying to help you, tell us what really happened!" Said one of the counselors she didn't know, but recognized. "John, sit down, please," she heard Dr. Hashimoto say. "Allison, could you come back a little later, Dr. Hashimoto's in a meeting right now," Grace said looking flustered, almost embarrassed. "Yeah, sure, thank you Grace," Allison said turning to the door when she heard the door blast open.

John bolted past Allison without noticing her, she was used to things like this. Something about John worried her, had he fallen down? Allison eyes opened when she thought of why he would say that, broken home. "Hey John, wait!" She called, this could have been one of the first times she had risen her voice at Shermer High School. John didn't stop, so she didn't stop. They kept walking, speed walking, at times running, but they kept moving.

Allison finally caught up to him when he was about to exit the building. She grabbed on to his sleeve, this somehow stopped him. She recalled the previous Saturday, 'want to talk?' 'no', if Andy couldn't take no for an answer, she wouldn't either. "What's wrong?" she asked. "Nothing, why the fuck do you care, anyway?" John answered. There was a little more hostility in this exchange of words than she thought there would be, but she had to try. She didn't answer at first, John turned to leave, until as loudly and as clearly as she could she said "Because if I don't I'm afraid no one else will."

The weirdo in black just asked John what was wrong. John didn't want or need this, he just wanted to be out of this hellhole. Of all the places for his old man to punch him it had to be his face. It could have been his stomach, his side, anywhere, at least with his cigar burn he got to go out in public unbothered. "You don't need to care, and I don't want you to care," John said harshly. "Well, life's a bitch," Allison said sternly, this girl wasn't giving up. "I wonder if I'll be able to leave without getting any absences," John said looking at her. Allison gasped when she saw his face; he had a black eye and a terribly bruised cheek, John admitted that it looked bad, but that didn't stop his annoyance at her reaction. "John that's awful," Allison told him. They stood there for a while.

"I'm out of here, I'll see you later," John said as he turned and walked out of the building towards the football field. She was following him, he didn't care, he tried speeding up, but she stuck close. "He walked up to the bleachers, it was cold out but he had his jean jacket. He perched himself up high, but on the far side so no one could see him. Allison sat a few spots away from him, she sat there looking at the field, she looked strange, she always did. They sat there in silence, she probably didn't know what to say, John could think of a lot of things he wanted to say, a million things, mean things, sad things, things that made him want to cry, things he knew would make Claire cry.

"John, is your face okay?" Allison asked plainly, she was concerned though, John knew this. In fact, it was the only thing that kept John from lashing out at her, running away, or leaping off these bleachers. "Well I was planning on entering a beauty contest on Saturday, so now I guess I don't need to postpone detention," John said laughing. Allison giggled, but turned and moved toward him. "John, we were all worried about you today," she lied to John. John knew they all cared, but not that much. John laughed rudely, "Yeah sure, I'm sure sporto was crying," John said. "Well, we were, whether or not you want to be an ass about it," Allison said. After that they both sat in silence for what seemed to be hours, it was likely to only be a few minutes.

John thought about going and buying a pack of cigarettes, he could ditch school, those counselors were all a mush at John's 'broken home' he didn't care, he was John Bender, the world shits on him all the time. Allison must have been kidding, none of those kids cared, they had no reason to care. John didn't want them to care, if there's anything he hated more than people being full of shit it was people pitying him.

They didn't talk when John got up to return to the building, they walked in silence down the bleachers steps. They passed the field where sporto had probably made his home, they walked through the parking lot where he had gotten high so many times. They walked by the bench at the bus stop where dweebo had probably traded star trek cards with his socially retarted friends. They walked into the building and past the art center, the only classroom fit for the quiet girl walking in his wake. They walked past a group of cheerleaders who looked at them him strangely, Claire's species.

They got closer and closer to his locker, people stared at them as they passed. John had no idea whether or not he was going to class next period. Allison silently went her own way, perhaps she saw that there was a certain redhead waiting at John's locker. John looked at her, she stood up in anticipation, possibly happy to see him, she looked him up and down. Her mouth dropped, and she covered her face with her hands.


End file.
